London among top 5 Ontario cities leading in 'greasy' renoviction tactics, new report finds

Renovictions have been happening at an alarming rate throughout Ontario over the last five years, according to data from the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) obtained by a tenants' advocacy group. 

London ranked in the top five cities with the highest number of N12 and N13 eviction notices filed to the LTB between 2017 and 2023, ACORN Canada's 2024 renoviction report found. 

N12s are served when a landlord or their family member want to move into a unit. N13 notices are for large scale renovations that require a property to be vacant. ACORN found through a freedom of information request, that more than 20,500 eviction notices were filed in Ontario between 2017 and 2021.

London was in fourth place with 858 N12s filed between 2017 and 2021, lagging only behind Toronto, Brampton and Mississauga. The city was number five for most N13s issued with 153 from 2017 and 2023.

"Landlords have now been financially motivated to do renovictions on mass," said Jordan Smith, chair of ACORN's Stoneybrook-Carling chapter in London. The tenants' union held events in London, Waterloo, and Ottawa on Wednesday to present the data. 

However, ACORN believes the actual number of such evictions is far greater than this report suggests and that more renters are "bullied" into leaving their homes before going through a hearing at the tribunal, Smith said.

"This data only shows N13s and N12s that were actually filed with LTB, which is a small fraction of the number of eviction notices being served to tenants. This data doesn't include cases where people left their homes because they didn't know their rights," he said. "We can only imagine the real severity of this problem."

The figures come as no surprise to Sharon Hodgson, who has lived at 1270 Webster Street in Huron Heights for six years, and received an N13 in April after a new owner bought the building. 

"I couldn't figure out why I was being evicted. I always paid my rent and I couldn't believe they were terminating my lease, then I found out that several other neighbours had already received the N13 notice," she said. 

"It's devastating. These are affordable units which people on fixed incomes have lived in for decades, they don't need to be out on the streets."

Hodgson eventually learned that the N13 she was given wasn't a legal document and was a template printed from the internet. She said she believes landlords often use other tactics like shutting off water or charging for parking to intimidate tenants into leaving.

Seniors on fixed incomes and people with disabilities are more disproportionately impacted by renovictions, Smith said, adding that they're also the ones who don't have resources to navigate the LTB system or afford legal aid.

"They're the most vulnerable who are targeted through this greasy tactic of unnecessary renoviction because when you consider that they're the least mobile, they're also the most likely to have been in their units for the longest amounts of time paying reasonable rent," he said.

ACORN wants municipalities to have anti-renoviction bylaws that would put the onus on landlords to accommodate displaced tenants and hold them accountable.